They posted a few hours back that they'll start charging soon, next month they hope, with the stated intention of weeding out uses who don't want to pay the (now confirmed) $15/month.

So part of their solution to lack of capacity is to force down demand (they're also increasing capacity anyway, to give them credit).

It's all in the twitter thread at https://twitter.com/RoamResearch/status/1257857549606387712

One would also like to think that they'll:

- Settle on a defined feature set
- Produce some halfway reasonable documentation
- Establish some basic admin features (delete database, change email for a start)
- Establish a proper support function

I have to say, their generally cavalier, high-five style of marketing has me wondering whether how much of that they'll do. Playing with the cool new toys is much more fun than the slog of preparing for cutover (I have much - very much - experience of handling this particular problem)


Mark wrote:

I doubt they'll be charging anytime soon. They just closed off new
signups because of scaling issues. Some people lost data.

This is rough on early users, and disappointing when the concept itself is so clearly exceptional.

It’s interesting to contrast the slow-but-solid Workflowy approach, which is often criticised for being too slow. Here, what I think people really mean is “too opaque”, i.e. not transparent enough, not following any obvious roadmap etc. Here, again, Workflowy have made significant improvements in recent months.

Pierre, of course, is a wonderful example of what happens when somebody follows the slow-but-steady AND super-transparent approach (I’m talking about InfoQube). And even he has to put up with a lot of criticism. It’s amazing how entitled users become if they’re not very self-aware. It reminds me a bit of the attitude cyclists all too frequently adopt versus pedestrians, even when said attitude is clearly unreasonable/illegal (e.g. riding on the pavement/sidewalk, riding through traffic lights etc.).

People, eh?

Cheers,
Bill

Agree. Roam-love, or perhaps Roam-aversion, have at least kicked off a small reaction in the market with developers either making new apps that incorporate or get inspiration from Roam-like linking features (Obsidian) or adding the features to forthcoming releases (Tinderbox, Drafts, Workflowy). Roam may or may not succeed, but note taking apps might improve because it was here.

tightbeam wrote:

I imagine that the better features of Roam Research will be incorporated
into other apps (Workflowy, for instance, soon will have "Roam-style
backlinks") marketed by developers less ... eccentric ... than the Roam
guy, so it won't matter what he charges.

MadaboutDana wrote:

Pierre, of course, is a wonderful example of what happens when somebody
follows the slow-but-steady AND super-transparent approach (I’m
talking about InfoQube). And even he has to put up with a lot of
criticism. It’s amazing how entitled users become if they’re
not very self-aware.

I don't think it's a case of "putting up" with criticism. Legitimate, *useful* criticism lubes the gears of progress. A developer who doesn't welcome that kind of criticism, or who wilts under it, isn't worth much. I'd like to see more criticism on this forum rather than the all-too-typical "what you're doing is great, keep it up!" (I wonder how many of those who praise then go on to pay for whatever they're praising.)

In Pierre's case, I believe most of the "criticism" focuses on the steep learning curve of InfoQube - quite legitimate! - and the consequent suggestions to flatten that curve somehow and thus attract new customers - quite useful!

So Roam have closed the beta to new users... Here is the announcement:

"This isnt normal - Scaling Update (from Conor)"

https://www.reddit.com/r/RoamResearch/comments/gevtjb/this_isnt_normal_scaling_update_from_conor/

And some user reaction to recent troubles:

"I'm so close to drop roamcult"

https://www.reddit.com/r/RoamResearch/comments/gdszo9/im_so_close_to_drop_roamcult/

tightbeam wrote:

Legitimate,*useful* criticism lubes the gears of progress. A developer who doesn't welcome that kind of criticism, or who wilts under it, isn't worth much.
In Pierre's case, I believe most of the "criticism" focuses on the steep learning curve of InfoQube - quite legitimate! - and the consequent suggestions to flatten that curve somehow and thus attract new customers

Hi All !

I couldn't agree more. If you can't take criticism, software dev. is not for you. Get another job !
And, it may seem like I don't take these into account, but I do, within (1) the vision of what IQ is and what it should be and (2) the limited time / resources I have.
IQ Outliner is a step in that direction, I hope users will find it useful (and manageable !)

Pierre

P.S. I have to say I don't remember if I've ever seen this much hype about an outliner before.

Even kids getting in on the action (though probably under a bit of home schooling parental pressure ;)

https://youtu.be/3taL1v-IKXg

I think you've done an excellent job of handling criticism and of responding to it in a productive manner - namely, IQ Outliner!

Pierre Paul Landry wrote:

tightbeam wrote:

> Legitimate,*useful* criticism lubes the gears of progress. A developer
who doesn't welcome that kind of criticism, or who wilts under it, isn't
worth much.
>In Pierre's case, I believe most of the "criticism" focuses on the
steep learning curve of InfoQube - quite legitimate! - and the
consequent suggestions to flatten that curve somehow and thus attract
new customers

Hi All !

I couldn't agree more. If you can't take criticism, software dev. is not
for you. Get another job !
And, it may seem like I don't take these into account, but I do, within
(1) the vision of what IQ is and what it should be and (2) the limited
time / resources I have.
IQ Outliner is a step in that direction, I hope users will find it
useful (and manageable !)

Pierre

I see that TheBrain 12 has added this feature of automatic recognition when you type the name of an existing thought:
https://www.thebrain.com/products/thebrain/thebrain12

Automatic Recognition of Mentions
- When a thought name appears within notes it is recognized automatically.
- Mentions are highlighted and respond to a right-click with a context menu to activate the mentioned thought or convert it to a direct link.
- Mentions utilize intelligent recognition of plural and singular word forms so exact matches are not required.

Related Thought Display in Content Area
- Mentions: Thoughts whose notes contain the name of the active thought even if not explicitly linked.


Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

This is so useful, and yet so rare a feature. I'm only aware of
Brainstorm and Zulupad (none developed anymore) that can do such a
thing.

In fact, a quick search found my mentioning this several times in this
forum, e.g. https://www.outlinersoftware.com/messages/viewm/9302

MadaboutDana wrote:
>I'm especially impressed by the way it draws phrases
>that are identical to page names to your attention (as "unlinked
>references") so you can turn them into actual links if you want to.

tightbeam wrote:

Legitimate,
*useful* criticism lubes the gears of progress. A developer who doesn't
welcome that kind of criticism, or who wilts under it, isn't worth much.

Speaking of wilting under criticism, there's this

https://bit.ly/3AbxW3O

Reddit user said after Conor posted his intemperate response he blocked the user.

https://www.reddit.com/r/noteplanapp/comments/wu6mbq/this_is_the_response_i_got_from_roam_research/

No, the original complaint wasn't specific with constructive ciritism, but it's just another example of Conor's thin skin.